For the past few weeks, I feel my lil one is more growing into the toddler stage. Of course, she’s not an infant anymore, they term her stage as ‘young toddler’ even in some of the daycares. And then they become toddler, pre-schooler and so on.

She understands what we are trying to convey to her more nowadays. Some of the few instances I can quote are:

1. Dad and Daughter playtime in the patio while Mom fixes dinner. Neighbors join in and they all involve in a nice evening chat. And when one of the neighbor asks ‘Where’s your mom?’ She came running inside and babbled with her face full of wide smiles and I certainly did understand what she tried to say!

2. She has lots of toys that plays different music and words and lights. I was singing one particular song that comes from her Red Truck Toy, and she scanned the whole room twice and found where its lying. It was amidst some other toys, she quicly ran to it, grabbed it and turned it ON, so that the music plays and soon she was shaking hips to that tune 🙂 How clever!!!

3. And whenever I say ‘Sleep Sleep’ or ‘amma mela saanjukko’ [meaning lie down on me] she does that.

4. I play ‘Tickle Tickle’ with her and she knows its tickles her tummy and she laughs out loud 🙂 And now she can say that word very clearly and she does it to herself and plays on her own or calls us to play with her 🙂

5. When I say ‘monster’ to her, she means it means something mischevious and funny. And she will start climbing on me 🙂 and she loves this game 🙂
She’s growing!!! 🙂

I love love love to dress her up in all cute lil frocks, hair clips and head bands,,,I dressed her similarly in skirt & blouse and added accessorized her with a matching head band [which, of course, she removed the next second I put it on] and here’s a rare picture of her with her head bad 🙂

Hehe the topic feels kinda weird., but hey, this post is not meant for trash-trash. 🙂

Tuesday is Trash Day in our communtiy and hence Monday evening is pick-your-trash-dump-in-the-trash-can time. Since it’s Daddy’s job, he will pick up the kitchen trash, restroom trash, Diaper Champ trash and Master bedroom trash, tie it all together and dump in the Huge trash can and roll it away to the frontyard walkway. And Tuesday evening he will wheel it back to its original place back.

I was busy fixing dinner last evening, as usual, and we noticed, the minute Daddy took the Kitchen Trash can lid off, and as he began tying the trash bag, my LO took small quick steps and literally ran to the front door !!! Amazed by her remembrance about the trash ritual my DH does, I silently watched her from the other end of the room. And OMG, she was waiting, near the Foyer area, for my husband to collect the restroom trash. 😮 We were amazed how much she has gotten into our routine and learnt that he will come there next and head to the front door!!! And yes, the minute she saw her dad pick the trash and head to the door, she was ALL SMILES! and enjoyed her outdoor time with her dad 🙂

Dressing my little one with pattu paavaadai [skirt and a blouse combination made with silk material ], I looked for kohl pencil to draw ‘pottu’ for her. Putting her down on the bed, I carefully selected hair clips that would match her paavaadai. When I tried to add on a rubber-band to her clips, I failed in my attempt, thanks to my naughty Shriya. She immediately pulled it off. I carefully analyzed her and guessed she missed something else, and added a zircon-ruby necklace. As soon as I decked her with all the accessories, I looked at her one more time, and said ‘Isn’t she pretty’? . Touching her cheeks with my Palms, getting them to my forehead and folding them with a sound at my knuckles, I said ‘dhrishti kazhinjadhu’ , meaning evil eyes / anything negative is warded off 🙂

Whenever I dress up Shriya, I always get reminded of my childhood days, when my mother dresses me up. During occasions like Diwali, Navarathri, saraswathi pooja and many others, my mom would dress me up with ‘pattu paavaadai’ , hair carefully braided and ended with a ‘kunjalam’, fresh-jasmine flowers adorning my hair, putting on a ‘pottu’ on my forehead and a small dot on my cheeks with a kohl – for drishti… I love to follow the same pattern for my daughter too. When I learnt that I will be having a baby girl during my 18th week ultrasound, pink hairband, pink frocks, pink socks were floating in my mind. Many a time, while shopping, I will be tempted to buy those dresses and accessories for my baby girl. 🙂
As I cleaned up her accessories box last evening, I realised how much I have bought / collected for her. Can’t wait for her to talk and ask for more 🙂 Heeeee

We went to visit our relatives there and they have 2 kids, an 8 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. Shriya who always loves the company of older kids, thoroughly enjoyed the holidays with them. And I noticed that my 16 month old young toddler fights equally with the naughty 3 year old boy 😛 , be it sharing of toys or gaining attention. Haha!

Shriya also visited the M’Park, Sky Deck – Willis Tower, Navy Pier and I can see that she loves sight-seeing like her parents. But she still doesnt like the flight journey though 😦 She was feeling very sleepy in the flight but unable to sleep as she isnt used to sleep on our arms 😦 Thats the saddest part of our trip…Hope she gets over this habit soon.